YUM: 40%
The Global Technology Risk Management team at
A cartoon cat with a love for lasagna and the parent company of
Today, children are online more than ever before. Nearly 70% of 12-year-olds own a smartphone, and almost a quarter of 8-year-olds carry one. As these kids get older and have a craving, data reveals that they'll most likely order their food online.
'It doesn't matter if you're a restaurant company, a bank or the
Yum!'s desire to share cybersecurity know-how with the next generation began in 2018 when Sands, who's certified in cybersecurity through (ISC)-2, spotted an ad in the group's
'What's even scarier is that 11% of those kids were going one step further and meeting with the stranger, so we found that if you're teaching your kids about how to stay safe online in middle school, it's too late,' she said.
That's why the program shifted its focus toward a younger audience under the guidance of director
So far, it's proved effective. GCSA easily equips anyone from teachers to parents to IT professionals with Educator Kits that include a 30-minute lesson plan complete with stickers, comic books, videos and more. Now in its third year, Garfield and his friends - including new additions of Siamese Cat Dr. Cybrina, who is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and her sidekick BISB (as in, Basic Internet Safety Bot) - have given over 170,000 cyber safety lessons around the world.
'The last thing kids want to do is listen to adults stand up in front of a classroom with a PowerPoint and have us wag our fingers at them,' Johnson said. 'But they'll sit still long enough to watch a 15-minute cartoon and learn how Garfield and his friends work their way out of an online situation in a safe and correct way.'
Sands says that's why Global Technology Risk Management and other
'At Yum! Brands, we care about our community and regularly volunteer to hunger relief, literacy, youth education and other causes,' Sands said. 'But our team has been wanting to give back in a way that's relevant to what we do, so the partnership just made sense.'
Plus, it's personal to him, he says, having a niece and a nephew who practically live their lives online.
'My sister's kids, they're not ready to drive yet, but we'll teach them defensive driving techniques and make sure they pass the test before giving them a license,' he said. 'It's the same thing here. We want to make sure we equip kids to know how to handle themselves on the internet. It's a crazy chaotic world out there, and we need to arm them with the skills to be able to navigate it.'
According to Johnson, students on average increase their cybersecurity knowledge by 36% after just one half-hour Garfield lesson, so if even one child remembers not to talk to strangers on the internet, that's time well spent for both Johnson, Sands and the
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